My #1 Book Marketing Tip in 2020: Kindle Series Pages
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2020
- This is my #1 book marketing strategy in 2020: sending readers to Kindle Series Pages!
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Just an FYI, I have no issues with getting my novellas into a series page. The shortest book is about 28,000 words, and many average 32,000.
I've had a few titles around that length get on to series pages also, but I know lots of others who have had trouble. Amazon says this in the Help pages on Series Collections: "Prequels, short stories, and novellas won't be added to Series Collections." However, Amazon doesn't define "novella" and it's not clear if there is actually a defined threshold.
Similar inconsistencies apply to pre-orders because Amazon says this: "If your series contains a book that's in pre-order, we can't support 1-click bulk buys for your Series Collection page. Readers can still buy all books in your series from the Series Collection page on an individual basis."
However as you can see from the video, lots of books with pre-orders on the series page retain the buy button up top.
@@DavidGaughran Okay, got it. Thanks!
@@mspoofycat my novella recently got kicked off my series...after they'd added it as "4.5" which I thought was amazing...then a few months later it disappeared from the series listings...boooo!
@@catporter8417 :( At this point, I write almost all novellas and they are all whole numbers. I've never had an issue with them putting them into the series, although I usually have to ask them to do it. Maybe that's the issue? You have to ask them?
@@mspoofycat I had asked them to include it and as long as I modified my metadata inside the book they were fine with it and most helpful, it was great! But then a few months later I noticed the book was no longer part of the series proper and contacted them and they said novellas are not allowed in series so it got taken off. OKAY...i have another series with a novella included as a regular add on (not a .5) and it even has the keyword "novella" all over the blurb but that one's still there! Ah, Amazon
Loving your videos! Please make more! Courtney from The Courtney Project recommended your channel and books. I already read 1 of your books and signed up for your newsletter.
Thanks for the meticulous followup answer! I get it now! One starts to get the feeling that craftsmanship attention to detail . . . like . . . matters. ; )
Thank you for your tip about the ASIN number of the series page changing with each addition to the series. Also, Amazon now allows you to do unordered series which is a boon for authors like me whose series consist of standalone books.
Thanks David! Really useful vid!
They're less fully-featured (mainly lacking the important buy-all-now button), but you can also get series pages on Nook, Google Play, and Apple Books.
I haven't found one yet on Kobo.
Freebooksy is good about promoting the wide stores, and (AFAIK), you can link to your wide series pages, too.
Great video. Thank you.
Hi David thanks for the video. I have a non-fiction series on the Zon where I have added a series name but I purposely haven’t put a number on each book as they can be read in any order. Are you saying that’s not all that helpful in the Zon universe? Any suggestions?
Thank you!
Is this still current content? Very valuable thank you.
Have you seen the series pages? No numbers necessary, prequels allowed, and even side projects!
I have! Amazon helpfully rolled them out about ten seconds after I published this video! But they are still a little buggy and it's not entirely clear what the effect of all the headline features will be. Numbers were never strictly necessary in the US - just the rest of the world - and I'm not entirely clear what has changed on that front. Prequels don't seem to be making it onto the pages quite yet. And the role of that related content which has everyone excited also is unclear right now - it's also not appearing on the series pages yet. Will it serve as a kind of algorithmic marker so Amazon knows to recommend it to those who complete a series? Or is it just a placeholder for now? I can't quite say. I'll probably do a new video on all that once it settles down, but for now I'm still building my series pages the old way - making sure metadata is perfectly consistent and in the form Amazon wants, which is probably a good idea anyway.
@@DavidGaughran I was able to put together a page for my non-linear non-fiction series, so that was nice.
What happens if you are publishing novella length books, so they are all Kindles, and then you want to publish a paperback with the first 3 or 4 books bundled together? How will the paperback appear, since it wouldn't have a series number? Any tips for how to add that kind of paperback to a series?
I'm ready to publish a 6 book novella. Will Amazon allow me to market my series as a "series?"
Not sure if you’re aware of this, David, but Amazon has now started advertising other authors’ series on the series pages on Amazon.com. It seems to be a recent change.
Yeah I think the blighters rolled that out like three days after I recorded this. I'm not overly concerned right now because (a) it's a carousel of Also Boughts rather than ads (at least, that's all I'm seeing), (b) Also Boughts cut both ways, and (c) most importantly, the placement below the fold and under the last book in the series is unlikely to peel too many clicks away from your books.
Looks like great advice - thanks David - also Facebook ads on the uk are accepting my series page as the target link, where they weren't accepting the book. I had ads running to my website, but series page has got to be better. No other book covers on the series page! That is killer. Will see how conversion goes...
this FB issue is a real pain and I'm amazed they haven't resolved it yet. I did give a few workarounds on my mailing list a couple of weeks ago if you continue to have trouble.
@@DavidGaughran The series page works great to bypass FB issues - and conversion/readthrough is higher than ever before. Folks are clicking that buy series button. Excellent tip, thanks David!!
@@michaelgrist8682 yesssss!
Hi David I haven't tried book bub before, signed up after watching your video on recentsy (spelling?) and ended up with 4 free titles on my kindle in genres I had identified (spec fiction and murder mystery). It's a wet weekend in Sydney so guess what I'll be doing!
I buy 2-3 books a week just from that email!
wow, WWM series promotions in my genre are sold out through mid January!
Word is spreading fast! Christmas slots also tend to get booked out well in advance on the main sites.
This was very helpful. I am not clear, however, on how you create that new landing page where the series is offered (and obtain that new ASIN).
Sorry if that wasn't clear. The series page will form automatically if you fulfill the following conditions:
1. It's a full-length book published by KDP which is on sale.
2. It has a series name (entered correctly in the metadata field - shown in video).
3. It has a series number (ditto).
I'm paraphrasing, but you can read the full guidelines here: kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201757800
And if you tick all those boxes and your series page isn't forming, and you have double-checked your series metadata fields for the kinds of issues I highlight in the video AND you are definitely looking at your local Kindle Store and are signed in to your Amazon account also... then contact Support. It will take a while, but they should be able to generate one for you.
And in terms of a timeline... it varies. The first time you put in your series metadata it can take a few days for the series page to form. Sometimes a week or longer (emailing Support can hurry this along a little... but only a little). The timeline is similarly variable when adding a new book to a series. Sometimes Amazon can take down the old series page within a day or two, only have it down for an hour or less, and put the new one up right away. Other times it can be a week or longer before they take it down, or it can stay down for days (or even weeks in extreme cases!). Again, staying on top of Support can help things along... but only to an extent.
My novellas of 20-25k are all on series pages. I've never had a problem. I don't think there is a word count limit from what I've seen. I have, at a guess, maybe seven novella series that all have their own series pages.
this is definitely the case where there is a difference between what Amazon officially says and what happens on the ground. Officially, Amazon says no novellas. I know people who have had issues getting novellas added to series pages - although they might have been shorter. But, yeah, I've been able to get a 30k book onto a series page also. If there is a hard rule here, it's not clear where the line is or if it is just inconsistently applied - which is also possible.
After watching this, I noticed that there was no button to buy the whole series on one of my series pages. Nothing wrong on my end so I reached out to amazon. They sent me a screenshot of the series page that looks even more broken, saying it was proof that all was well. I tried again and they just responded saying that they don't do a full series- purchase button for every series.
It's not like I was screaming in all caps or anything, just polite requests.
It doesn't seem possible to develop a coherent marketing strategy when you can't rely on amazon being consistent. Starting to question the wisdom of being in kindle unlimited.
Well, yes, one of the big drawbacks of KU is that your eggs are all in one basket, but given that B&N was basically knocked offline for 5 days and no one sold a single book, I think we can expect wrenches in the works whether we are wide or exclusive - it's just a feature of the modern publishing landscape we have to work around, whether we like it or not.
In your specific case, I think you reached an unhelpful or misinformed customer service person, so I'd recommend trying again with KDP Support. Perhaps try contacting them by phone, and having this KDP Help Page open, to quote to them, if necessary: kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201757800
@@DavidGaughran after all that pushback from two amazon reps, I opened the series page, getting ready to call as you suggested, and found that someone had fixed it. Amazon is an innovative company but a little sketchy on execution, sometimes.
David, great video, but I am confused about the information you gave about the series page link changing with each additional book. I have around seven series, and they have each had the same series page link from day one, they've never changed.
that's really odd - I've never seen that before, and I've been using this strategy a lot and watching a bunch of series pages a lot since 2017 or so. Every time I release a book it breaks the series page and it pops back up with a new ASIN.
@@DavidGaughran - I can't explain it. When I saw that in your video, I even went and checked the series page link for my first book in my very first series. It was still correct. Weird.
@Cheryl Wright Can you share a link? I'd love to snoop🕵 a little
@@DavidGaughran, will my Amazon author link help? If not, let me know.
www.amazon.com/Cheryl-Wright/e/B0088GDSKM
David what screensharing technology do you use?
A very nifty app called Clapboard - which I like more than Loom (which is less attractive now anyway with the new pricing structure). I got it on a lifetime deal from AppSumo - which was handy. A new one you might want to check out is Tella - which will be so amazing if they can make it less janky, as it will be an all-in-one video editer + screen-sharing tool with some pretty amazing features. Needs some work on the usability front though IMO. Oh and if you are looking to check out Clapboard, it has been renamed but you can find it here: storyxpress.co/
@@DavidGaughran Thank you!
And great video!
My series page does not have a 1-click buy button for the series. How do I get this displayed and where do I set the price?
Can you share a link? And are you in the USA viewing your Amazon US series page?
@@DavidGaughran www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07R2MX894 No, I'm in Australia but the link above is for my US page
Thanks for your reply BTW
I have the same question. Am I too late to the party? I don't have the 1-click buy button.
David, why don't you use a landing page listing all the books in the series and the new launch instead of sending them to an Amazon series page? A landing page would give you more flexibility, wouldn't it?
Sending readers to a landing page on your site, instead of direct to Amazon, adds an extra step which will cost you a lot of sales even if you have the best website in the world.
@@DavidGaughran that's true. Wish Amazon gave us direct to cart links.
Hi David thanks for the video. I have a non-fiction series on the Zon where I have added a series name but I purposely haven’t put a number on each book as they can be read in any order. Are you saying that’s not all that helpful in the Zon universe? Any suggestions?
You don't need to put an actual number on the book - as in on the title page of the book or its cover - but to get a series page outside of the US, it looks like it is a requirement to assign numbers to the series, so perhaps you might explore if you could do that.
Here's what Amazon says (although keep in mind I can't confirm if that's what actually happens in practice):
"eBooks in an ordered series without a series number won't appear on your Series Collection page. If you're creating an unordered series (US only), you can leave this field blank and your titles will appear by publication date."